DEALING WITH THE RELIGIOUS PAST: MEDIEVAL POLAND* Acta Poloniae Historica 101, 2010 PL ISSN 0001–6892 Roman Michałowski CHRISTIANISATION OF THE PIAST MONARCHY IN THE 10th AND 11th CENTURIES I Which facts testify to the beginning of the Christianisation process of a given country and which ones indicate its conclusion? This is a question which was posed by Barbara Yorke in her work on early medieval England.1 In her opinion, the process of Christianisation starts with the conversion of the fi rst monarch and ends at the time when there are no more pagan rulers on the throne. In accordance with these principles, the author assumes that the Christianisation of England began with the baptism of the king of Kent, Æthelbert, that is most probably in 597. During the course of almost one hundred years however, there was a kaleidoscopic pattern of the occupation of the thrones of individual Anglo-Saxon kingdoms by pagan and Chris- tian rulers and also pagan rulers who later accepted Christianity and Christian ones who committed apostasy. This continued until the 680s, when a pagan assumed power for the last time, which marked the end of the period of the Christianisation process. Yorke also focused her attention on some other facts allowing a determination of whether and to what extent a ruling house of the period was attached to Christianity. The most important among those * The articles published below came from the book Animarum cultura. Studia nad kulturą religijną na ziemiach polskich w średniowieczu, vol. 1: Struktury kościelno- -publiczne [Animarum cultura: Studies into Religious Culture in the Polish Lands of the Middle Ages, i: Ecclesiastical-Public Structures], edited by Halina Manikowska and Wojciech Brojer, and published by the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw, 2008). 1 Barbara Yorke, ‘The Reception of Christianity at the Anglo-Saxon Royal Court’, in Richard Gameson (ed.), Saint Augustine and the Conversion of England (Stroud, 1999), 152–73, esp.: 161–5. http://rcin.org.pl 6 Roman Michałowski facts is the phenomenon of the destruction of pagan sanctuaries. This, to be precise, did not always happen in the fi rst generation after the conversion. In Kent, for example, those mentioned sanctuaries had not been liquidated until forty years after the baptism of the fi rst king, during the reign of his grandson, despite the fact that there was no vacancy on the bishop’s throne during that whole period. This testifi es to the detachment which Christian rulers maintained from their new religion. On the other hand, there are recognised cases which prove their far reaching identifi cation with the faith of Christ. For example, from the beginning of the 630s onwards, some monarchs happened to step down from the throne to join a religious order. There was also an increasing tendency for rulers to send their daughters to nun- neries. Towards the close of the seventh century every Anglo-Saxon kingdom had its own monastery where female members of the royal family served God. A fi nal factor are the canonisations which were taking place already in the 7th century: kings, especially martyrs who had died on the battlefi eld, and females from the royal family, were venerated as saints. The concept of Christianisation which is used by Barbara Yorke could be considered as minimalist. She does not ask whether also common people accepted the new faith and whether this was a profound change. She considers opinions and religious practices of the monarch and his family as the crucial indicators. This is the approach to the subject which will be adopted in this article. This does not mean that the author does not recognise the importance of research into the problem of evangelisation, conver- sion, and Christianisation of the whole Polish people.2 However, for such an early period such a study encounters hindrances which 2 The studies concerning the Christianisation of Poland are numerous. Among the most important are works by Aleksander Gieysztor, e.g. ‘Les paliers de la pénétration du christianisme en Pologne au Xe–XIe siècle’, in Studi in onore di Amintore Fanfani, i (Milan, 1962), 329–67; ‘Le fonctionnement des institutions ecclésiastiques rurales en Bohême, en Pologne et en Hongrie aux Xe et XIe siècles’, in Cristianizzazione ed organizzazione ecclesiastica delle campagne nell’alto medioevo (Set- timane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull’alto medioevo, 28, Spoleto, 1982), 925–54. I myself also took part in the discussion on this subject several times, e.g. La christianisation de la Pologne aux Xe–XIIe siècles, in Michel Rouche (ed.), Clovis. Histoire et mémoire, ii: Le baptême de Clovis, son écho à travers l’histoire (Paris, 1997), 419–34. http://rcin.org.pl Christianisation of the Piast monarchy 7 are diffi cult to overcome. Written sources are too scarce, and the archaeological material which is used for this purpose is hardly ever possible to interpret unambiguously. On the other hand, the analysis of the process of Christianisation focused on an individual ruler makes a good point of departure because in the conditions created by early medieval Europe the new religion spread across previously pagan countries thanks to the conversion of the monarch. Let us apply to the Polish material the conceptual template, worked out for the needs of the study of the situation in Anglo-Saxon England. There is a highly characteristic fact which immediately attracts one’s attention. Here, from the conversion of the fi rst ruler onwards, the throne of Poland was occupied incessantly by Christians, and none of them committed apostasy. Only the conduct of Bezprym can be open to question. Some argue that, reaching for the rank of duke in 1031, he abandoned Christianity.3 This point, however, does not seem to be particularly convincing.4 Also, another doubt arises. Was it not the case, as traditional history maintains, that in the early days of the rule of Casimir the Restorer, or after he had left the country, rule over the territory passed to local dukes who disavowed Christianity in a wave of pagan reaction?5 This was indeed the course of events in peripheral Pomerania,6 but in turn Miecław, who took over the rule in Masovia at this time, was certainly not an apostate.7 We do not know either whether any ducal power crystallised in the heart of the Piast state, Greater Poland. It is rather doubtful.8 Even if this was so, the ruler 3 Gerard Labuda, Mieszko II król polski (1025–1034). Czasy przełomu w dziejach państwa polskiego (Rozprawy Akademii Umiejętności, Wydział historyczno-fi lozo- fi czny 73, Cracow, 1992), 85–6. 4 See Zbyszko Górczak, ‘Bunt Bezpryma jako początek tzw. reakcji pogańskiej w Polsce’, in Jerzy Strzelczyk and Józef Dobosz (eds.), Nihil superfl uum esse. Studia z dziejów średniowiecza ofi arowane Profesor Jadwidze Krzyżaniakowej (Poznań, 2000), 111–21. 5 A general overview of the problem of apostasy in Poland of the 1030s is presented by Jerzy Strzelczyk, ‘Der Volksaustand in Polen in den 30er Jahren des 11. Jahrhunderts und seine Rolle während der Krise des frühpiastischen Staates’, Zeitschrift für Archäologie, xviii (1984), 134–5 (the whole article on 129–40). 6 Aleksander Gieysztor, ‘Trzy stulecia najdawniejszego Mazowsza (połowa X – połowa XIII w.)’, in Aleksander Gieysztor and Henryk Samsonowicz (eds.), Dzieje Mazowsza do 1526 roku (Warsaw, 1994), 100. 7 Janusz Bieniak, Państwo Miecława (Warsaw, 1963), 24–5, passim. 8 Henryk Łowmiański, Początki Polski, vi, part 1 (Warsaw, 1985), 72–3. http://rcin.org.pl 8 Roman Michałowski here may not have favoured paganism. One piece of evidence of this is that Gniezno Cathedral with its furnishings, dripping with gold and jewellery, remained intact until the invasion of Břetislav (in 1038 or 1039). As can be observed, the Polans were not familiar with the apostasy of a ruler. This produces the following conclusion: if we considered the most important criterion used by Barbara Yorke as the basis of our con- siderations, we would have to assert that in the state of the Polans, Christianisation took place instantly. So we are facing a situation which is completely different from the Anglo-Saxon countries. It is worth trying to explain this difference. In England it was the political instability which was the cause of the pattern of religious change.9 In the discussed period, continuous fi ghts between individual kingdoms took place. Whereas some of them made attempts to gain hegemony, some others defended themselves from being marginalised and losing independence. The preponderance of one ruler over others was often relative and impermanent. Sooner or later it turned out to be disastrous. Political and military defeats and the uncertain future made the rulers confront the dilemma of which religion to choose: Christianity or traditional cults. It was not only the case of the prudence of social engineering, to provide oneself with the biggest possible number of allies. The major problem lay elsewhere. Which religion – it was asked – would bring favours from Heaven more effi ciently? The answer was far from simple. There was a common consent that political and military success was a criterion for assessing the effectiveness of a religion. If this was the case, a military defeat induced one to abandon previous beliefs and look for good fortune elsewhere. It turned out soon, however, that also this new faith did not guarantee only success. This gave rise to temptation, why not return to the old religion? 9 The most signifi cant work on this subject: Nicholas J. Higham, The Convert Kings: Power and Religious Affi liation in Early Anglo-Saxon England (Manchester and New York, 1997), passim; among other works – there are many studies that could be mentioned – several are of especial value: Arnold Angenendt, ‘The Conversion of the Anglo–Saxons Considered against the Background of the Early Medieval England’, in Angli e Sassoni al di qua e al di la del Mare (Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull’alto medioevo, 32, Spoleto, 1986), ii, 2, pp.